Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Slim down with smaller buses

Why is it so much easier to raise taxes on everyone by increasing the gas tax than it is to get creative and reduce or reroute or retool (smaller buses) the Port Authority? ('Legislators Eye Gas Tax Boost to Save Mass Transit,' Oct. 6). My pockets are already empty enough by living in Allegheny County.

I drive 20 miles a day to work and this 5-cent tax would cost me about $260 annually. And don't tell me to take the bus because there is no direct route to Oakmont from Turtle Creek. It would take me over an hour on a bus via Wilkinsburg for a 20-minute drive.

I currently live on a Port Authority bus route in Turtle Creek. I have lived in my house for 10 years and to date have never seen a bus go by that had more than 10 passengers. Most times the bus is empty. This isn't one of the 'new' smaller shuttle-type buses. No, it's the full size, diesel-burning regular buses that I see in Downtown Pittsburgh driving around residential streets empty.

Let's reroute some of the bus lines out of the residential streets and onto the main streets. A person might have to walk a bit farther to get a bus.

If we can't or won't reroute, let's retool. Make the buses smaller to match the average ridership (don't they keep figures on that?). Our bus could be a mini-van with all the customers I've seen on the bus route in front of my house.